Late Weekly Letter

Sorry everyone! I totally forgot to finish and send this earlier. It's
late so I'm going to finish it real quick so it won't be as long or as
in depth as normal, I'll maybe rehash on some things next week!

Honestly not much happened this week, so there are two important
things I want to mention! One is how I'm a complete music nerd and
there are people here that appreciate it! And the other is about
agency and attitude!

There are two members here in Newcastle that have degrees in music
education! One teaches 7th-12th grade band and choir in Upton and the
other teaches piano lessons out of her home! We had breakfast at the
Wilkes the other day and both of them were there so I had a very
refreshing conversation about music theory classes and some of our
favorite pieces of choral literature! Hahaha man I miss talking about
that stuff with people that appreciate it! We talked about chords and
non chord tones and favorite composers and styles, it was all around
one of the most refreshing conversations I've had in a while!
Completely grand in every way possible! Haha sorry for all the
exclamation points. I use them a lot, I'm tired and it's a very
exciting topic to me!

The other thing is about agency. It is such a miracle and blessing
that I think so many people take for granted. Please take the time to
study 2 Nephi chapter 2 and think about what agency really is and why
you're thankful for it. It all comes down to making choices between
eternal life and eternal death haha! It's really a very bold but
simple truth. There are really only two influences in this world. Good
and bad or Christ and Satan. When you make decisions on how you use
your time and even what attitude you're going to have, make sure you
stop and think which direction you want to be heading and how your
current decisions will affect that! When you think about it it should
become pretty obvious which to choose, because I don't think any of us
really truly desire eternal death and pain haha! I know I don't!
There's an awesome quote I'll attach from Elder Holland, keep moving
forward and remember that the journey of a thousand miles can be in a
good or bad direction. If you're heading in a bad direction turn
around and start your thousand in the other direction today! The
atonement makes that possible!

Elder Tippetts

We tracted into a VIKING!!!

No joke. We totally tracted into a Viking. It's probably been the
funniest/awesomest experience I've had yet! But I'm going to make you
wait to hear it until the end of my letter because it happened Sunday
night. But no cheating, don't read the end first haha! Elder Hatton
and I are doing awesome out here! I love missionary work!

Monday

Not much happened last preparation day. We bought a lot of food. A
lot of food haha! We decided to go to family dollar for the first time
and everything was so cheap haha! We filled our pantries for way less
than we usually do! Elder Hatton and I are pretty content haha!

Tuesday

We went to Upton on Tuesday because normally we go on Wednesday
but we don't haven't had much success so we decided to try a different
day and it worked! We stopped by the house of someone who used to meet
with the elders but they've moved and the person that lives there now
wasn't interested. Even though she wasn't interested we had a really
good gospel conversation about the importance of Christ and she asked
us to go visit one of her friends that's going through a hard time! A
non member that wasn't meeting with us gave us a referral! It's really
awesome that she realizes that Christ is so important that she's fine
with us sharing a message about Christ with her friend haha! We also
had an awesome revelatory experience! We were planning on tracting a
specific street that we picked from a map before we went, but the
street doesn't actually exist...so we looked at a map and elder Hatton
said 'how about East st?' And that was the exact street I had just
looked at and was about to suggest we go there! So we went there and
met some great people and found two people that could be super solid
investigators!

When we got back to Newcastle we had a lesson with Miles. I don't
think I've told you much about him before, he's a 14 year old boy with
3 younger siblings all over the age of 8 and they live with their mom,
a less active member. She won't let them get baptized yet but she lets
us meet with him each week. In the past all of the family members
except miles evacuate the area whenever we show up and they deny any
invitations to come listen. This week 2 of the kids came in and read
from the Book of Mormon with us! It was really cool and they reall
like us!

Wednesday

This morning we woke up and did our studies then went to help
Dallas cut some branches off his tree. It was a little sketchy because
they were pretty big branches and he had to stand right underneath
them to reach them with the chainsaw, so we stood off like 20-30 feet
with a rope tied to the branch and had to pull it away from him when
it started to fall haha! Also, on Wednesdays we get a free meal at
Howdy's, a locally owned fast food place. And it has good food!
Awesome burgers!

We went and visited Brother Palmer in Upton with his old home
teacher. Bro Palmer has been less active for a long time and decided
this last week that he's officially coming back to church! I've only
known him the way he is now but he used to be really bitter towards
the church because of some really negative experiences. It's so cool
talking with him about what's changed over the past 10 years! It has
so much to do with him reading the Book of Mormon every day. I know
that it's so true and it changes lives.

Thursday

This morning we went running for the first time! Elder Hatton was
a 2A State Champ x-country runner his junior year but none of his
companions before would go running with him and we just randomly
decided to run today! It was a mistake...haha just kidding it was good
for us! Even though he hasn't run in over a year he's in a lot better
shape than me so I was dying, but we plan on running more consistently
and it will help a lot!

We drove to Sundance today to do some work up there and on the
drive we listened to 'How to Write an Anti-Mormon Book' by Hugh
Nibley. It was hilarious and really cool as he just proved wrong all
the accusations that were made and disproved the validity of the rest.
I know from the spirit that this church is true but it was cool to see
him explain it logically too. But don't let anything like that be the
basis of your testimony! It's all about getting your own answer from
God.

Friday

Speaking of the Book of Mormon on Friday we studied how to use it
to answer any objection anyone has about the church. It all comes down
to one fact, that it's true. That's why Joseph smith said it's the
keystone of our religion. Without it everything falls apart, and I
mean everything. So when anyone has any concern it all comes down to
is it true or not? Because if it's true then the concern doesn't
really matter or change anything anymore.

We went tracting in a part of Sundance that for 18 houses in a row
no one answered. It was a little hard because it was so hot but we
know that we were guided there and that means there's a reason we were
there, even if we never find out what that reason was. The next street
we found 2 new investigators! So maybe a reason for before was that
these two people wouldn't have been home or ready to talk to us if we
had come by earlier!

We went and contacted the referral we got from Upton with
President Booth, the branch president for Sundance. We knocked on the
door we though we were looking for after nearly 20 minutes of looking
and driving and Gona (Joana) didn't answer. But the guy she moved in
with did. He's an alcoholic that suffers from severe vertigo. He was
nice and said that Gona is staying there and we'd have to come back a
different time to find her. We offered him a priesthood blessing for
his vertigo and he declined but agreed to pray with us. He came over
and grabbed our hands and so we held hands in a circle and prayed. A
different experience for me! And he goes to one of the churches in
town that when the person is praying it's okay for you to say things
too. Definitely a new and interesting experience haha! It was really
cool though, he really wanted God's help to get over his problems!

After that president Booth took us to an Upton high school football
game! It's really different than a Provo one. They didn't have big
bleachers like Provo, their pep band was only like maybe 8 people big!
Upton's team is combined with Sundance's and their mascot is the
bulldog too, so that's awesome! The band teacher is in our Ward in
Newcastle and she offered to let Elder Hatton and I come play with
their pep band whenever we want to! We can met lots of people at the
game and can meet more that way!

Saturday

Well we got pulled over in Saturday...just kidding sort of. We
were pulled off to the side of the road and a cop came and told us it
was private property so we had to leave. But he was really nice and
made sure we knew he wasn't sending us off only because we're LDS
haha! It was sketchy at first because he pulled up a way off and was
looking at us and he ran our plates but then he came and talked with
us and it was all chill haha!

The branch mission leader is awesome. Brother Skeens and his wife
made dinner for us and some other members on Saturday! We got there
right at the end of the Nebraska BYU game! Sister Skeens was freaking
out and screaming she was so happy about that last pass haha! Go
Cougars! They're cool and love the gospel and want to share it with
everyone!!

Sunday

Almost to the Viking! Sorry it's been a long letter haha, lots of
stuff happened this week! We went 'inspired tracting' yesterday.
Basically we say a prayed and drive around until one of us chooses a
house to go to! It was really fun and the spirit led us to an awesome
house with a lady that has the potential to be super solid! She was
really nice and very interested in what we said! We also tracted her
neighbors' houses and met Lee. He's an Army vet from Vietnam and Worl
War II is what he said. He's had really negative experiences with
Christians before and said nothing gives him joy in life but watching
politicians make fools of themselves on TV. We listened to some of his
stories and he agreed that we could come back and teach him some of
our own stories about Jesus! When we left he thanked us a lot and said
that we really brightened his day!

Now the Viking. We went inspired tracting again with the last 15
minutes of the night. Elder Hatton and I both see this one house and
immediately feel the need to go knock there! We go and knock and a
very strong looking man with curly red hair, a big beard and a
mustache that curls on the ends answers the door! Here's how the
conversation went.

"Hi"

"How are you doing tonight"

"Good"

"Awesome, well we'd love to share a message with you about Jesus
Christ. We believe that baptism is really important. Will you follow
the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the
priesthood of God?"

"No, I think I'm fine. Thanks for asking though!"
"That's all fine, do you have a specific religion or church you belong to?"
"I tend to lean toward the Norse religion. I believe that if I live an
honorable life and die nobly in battle then I will be taken up to the
golden gates of Valhalla in the arms of Odin himself."
"Oh, well we haven't heard that one before! Why is that important to you?"
"I live by a pretty strict code of noble morals."
"Great! Well we'd love to come by another time and share a message
with you about Jesus Christ and why that's so important to us!"
"Sure! That'd be awesome!"

Normally you don't just give a baptismal invitation with nothing else
backing it up basically but before this house we decided we should. It
was a very unique door haha! His name was Cody and I can't wait to go
talk with him again! It was definitely the most unique experience I've
had and it was awesome! I loved it. It was hilarious but there were
also some cool spiritual aspects of it too. I loved when he basically
bore his testimony to us why it's important to live by a code of
morals and standards that you personally strongly believe in!

Once again, sorry for the long letter! Hopefully I'll send the email
myself out to you all next week myself! I love you all! Continue
moving forward!

Elder Tippetts